Stephanie Layne, resident of Success Street, frequently watched her grandchildren during the summer. She has been boiling water because of the color, and worries about bacteria.
Photograph: Jessica Glenza for the Guardian

In many American cities, finding elevated lead levels in drinking water is enough to spark serious concern. But in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where many residents are delivered expensive, rust-colored and corrosive water, it’s just one of many of complaints.

On just one street, a pregnant 19-year-old and a Vietnam veteran said they no longer drink the tap water. A grandmother said she buys bottled water when she can, but other times boils the water, which can concentrate lead.

Before she came to the door, five young children poured out, her grandkids and their friends.

“It’s sitting on my dining room table,” said Madge Madrishin, another resident of Success Street, about a letter sent from the PWSA that explained the tap water contained 22 parts per billion of lead, nearly 1.5 times the federal limit. “I didn’t do anything about it. I mean, what can you do? You can fight them, but you can’t win.”

A bath that belongs to another resident of Success Street. Photograph: Jessica Glenza for the Guardian

For months, residents of this Rust Belt city have complained of intermittent brown water, of main breaks, and concerns about high lead levels. But even as alarmed residents raised health concerns, the city water authority ratcheted up the cost of water, issued inaccurate water bills and maintains that the water is safe.

Even city council members andcity employees are critical of PWSA.

“They’re saying it’s safe to drink. I’d like to see them drink it,” said Theresa Kail-Smith, councilwoman for Pittsburgh’s second district.

“We’re dealing with lots of brown water in our district,” said a city employee, who did not want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

“People – first they dealt with outrageously high water bills, and now they’re dealing with brown water. This is uncalled for,” the employee said. “They should not be forced to boil down water. That’s the whole point of having a water system. That’s the whole point of having this – that people can go to their faucets and drink treated, safe water.”

‘A failed organization’

In the last five years, the Pittsburgh water and sewer authority has been a source of mounting discontent.

One local politician called the authority a “failed organization”, after an auditor’s report found PWSA failed to plan, respond to service calls or retain senior executives. In 20 years, the organization lost 13 executive directors, three financial officers, and five engineering directors, according to a copy of the report obtained by the Guardian.

In 2008, PWSA borrowed more than $400m in variable rate bonds just as the market collapsed. This year, debt payments alone accounted for 44% of the authority’s operating budget.

By 2010, the water agency was struggling with what seemed like an invasion of cancer-causing chemicals called trihalomethanes, formed when salty fracking wastewater came into contact with treated drinking water.

In an effort to reduce brominated trihalomethanes, the PWSA dropped chlorine levels, one of several factors Stanley States, the director of water quality at PWSA until 2014, believes led to increased lead levels.

After Veolia took over management of the city’s water, the chemical used to control corrosion of metals, such as lead, was changed. Typically, it takes months for a water department to change corrosion control methods, because changes can cause lead spikes. Feasibility studies must be conducted, rounds of testing completed, state agencies notified and their approval sought.

By 2015, much of Veolia’s tenure in the city had been marred by persistent billing issues related to new water meters. Up to 50,000 erroneous bills were issued as a result of Veolia’s attempted updates to 77,000 water meters.

“I brought these concerns to everybody,” said Pittsburgh councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith. “I represent around 34,000 people … Every one of my constituents were affected by this. I still receive complaints. In fact, my own household, we haven’t received a bill in months.”

The announcement about the corrosion control change apparently caught even Good by surprise, who said in a public meeting that “I guess we were further along than I thought,” according to the Tribune-Review.

Legal violations emerge

Unlike in Flint, Michigan, where sudden changes in water chemistry caused a spike, lead levels in Pittsburgh’s tap water rose steadily for 12 years, alongside cancer-causing chemicals from fracking waste.

By 2013, 14.8 parts per billion of lead were found in tap water, teetering on the edge of the federal limit of 15 parts per billion.That level is meant to warn water authorities that methods to control pipe corrosion are not working. Pittsburgh blew past 15 parts per billion in its most recent tests.

There is no safe level of lead. In childhood, exposure diminishes IQ and can lead to behavioral and developmental problems. Federal limits for lead in drinking water are based only on water chemistry.

In fact, some of the most pioneering lead research in the country was conducted in Pittsburgh, where Dr Herbert Needleman x-rayed the bones of 212 boys, and found that those with higher lead measurements, “exhibited more delinquent, aggressive, internalizing, and externalizing behavior than otherwise similar boys”, according to a recent paper by Harvard economist James Feigenbaum (pdf).

Allegheny County, of which Pittsburgh is the seat, still has some of the highest reported rates of elevated lead levels in Pennsylvania. In 2014, 1,010 children (pdf) had blood lead levels above the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s warning level of 5 micrograms per centiliter of blood.

But connecting harm to drinking water is difficult. For more than a decade, water in Pittsburgh was only tested in 50 homes every three years, and most of those belonged to city employees or were not considered high-risk.

Despite years of climbing lead levels, state authorities were only tipped off to possible problems in Pittsburgh because of statements PWSA made to local reporters in January, ironically meant to assure the public of the safety of their drinking water following the crisis in Michigan.

pittsburgh water corrosion
The Pennsylvania department of environmental protection found out that PWSA changed corrosion control in January, but a report from the county health department four months earlier could have been a red flag: the inspector told PWSA they could switch corrosion control ‘depending on cost’.

The state department of environmental protection found that the agency violated state law by switching its method of corrosion control, but simultaneously emphasized in a press call that there was no threat to the public. Failure to implement corrosion control is believed to be the reason for lead contamination in Flint, Michigan.

But when PWSAtested city homes this summer,17 of 100 Pittsburgh homes had lead levels above the 15 parts per billion limit, some by a factor of five.

Remarkably, lead levels crept upward despite that PWSA’s failure to test homes with the highest risk of lead contamination.

Though Pittsburgh was supposed to test 50 homes at high risk for lead contamination every three years, it tested only 22 in 2004, and 24 in 2010. The remainder were lower-risk homes. In 2012, local news station WTAE found that 40 out of 50 test sites belonged to water department employees, and were concentrated in two neighborhoods.

States, the former water quality director at PWSA, said despite lackluster testing in Pittsburgh, his department was not trying to flout regulations.

“I would have liked 30 years ago to take all the lead service lines out,” said States, adding that he believed water departments should stop “Mickey mousing around” with trying to control lead with chemicals.

But under his leadership, Pittsburgh also failed to test the required number of high-risk homes for lead, and said he felt “I’d have been fired” if Pittsburgh exceeded federal limits for lead.

Problematically, the piecemeal approach undertaken by the water department can cause lead spikes too. The city began replacing parts of lead service lines, known as a partial replacement. Some experts believe the practice should be banned, and similar line replacements are now the subject of class action lawsuits in Chicago and Philadelphia. Pittsburgh has already performed 99 such replacements.

“Over the last year, the Pennsylvania DEP has repeatedly understated lead-in-water risks, and they have also defended test methods throughout the state that can hide high lead in water levels,” he said, referring to how the state allowed use of discredited testing methods. “It appears Pennsylvania residents will have to look elsewhere for honest answers – just like residents in Flint last year.”

State regulators told the Guardian: “DEP continues to work with PWSA to determine the effects of the switch to pipeline infrastructure.”

“Residents, especially those in older homes, are strongly encouraged to take simple steps to reduce possible lead in their drinking water: run the tap and use cold water for cooking/baby formula prep,” regulators said.

Brown water persists

For some residents, warnings of elevated lead levels came alongside a new phenomenon: brown water.

“Everything we do filtered, even brushing my teeth I do with bottled water,” said a resident who did not want to be named, because she works in public service. “I’m using bottled water to brush my teeth.” She has lived in the neighborhood 26 years. This has never happened before, she said.

“One day, I noticed it was really brown,” said Jane Wiles about her tap water. “I called 311 saying, ‘I want to put my two cents in,’” about the brown water, but “the lead was more of a concern.”

The Pittsburgh water and sewer authority has said the brown water issues are related to hydrant flushing or additional manganese in the water, but admitted the main breaks have contributed to the problem. It could not say how many complaints have been lodged.

“When I get up in the morning, I flush the water,” said Wiles. “I try to do my best I can.”